Ubuntu Blog

About

Ubuntu is, in my humble opinion the easiest and best way to switch from Windows to a free/open-source operating system. In order to make your transition easier, and to help those that have started using ubuntu, this weblog features a series of articles with tips and tricks.

When I started this blog, I resolved that:
a) I will not regurgitate posts from other websites unless essential.
b) I will not write articles just because I have to write something for the day.

I want the posts on this site to maintain the highest quality and utility. That, in a sentence, has been my goal.

So who am I? I am Carthik, a graduate student, like so many others. I write here when I find something worth remembering or sharing with other other Linux users.

I look forward to trawling mailing list and forum posts (so you don’t have to), and the www to bring you little snippets of helpful information. Some of these tips may also be useful for users of other flavors of Linux, and users of the Gnome desktop.

If you have a news item, or a favourite tip or webpage that you’d like to share, please email me at carthik@ubuntu.com.

Please leave a comment here if you have any suggestions for improvement, or a kind word, or even just a random thought.

I look forward to your support. Someone requested that I put up my wishlist here, and so here it is. I know, nothing’s free… except information. My wishlist mostly has a few books – there are ones that sell for less than a dollar, and the most expensive book costs $65 or so. Any help in feeding my book addiction is welcome🙂

My Amazon.com Wish List

If you wish to contribute towards my (minimal) expenses, you can send a donation to the email address carthik@ubuntu.com via Paypal. I wish I could add a button here, but since I don’t host this blog, I cannot add the Paypal button’s form here.

Comment Policy:

I reserve the right to remove comments that I find objectionable. This includes comments that are not relevant to the post, and comments that are posted that look like comment spam. Please don’t be offended if I delete your comments, or edit your comment to remove the url(s) in it. After all, it is my blog.

Like this:

Im student for Duta Wacana Kristian University indonesia , my name andreas, in Duta Wacana Kristian University i put Informatic teknologi, in this smester i put Linux System, but i don’t have laptop for study this, evry day i go to the WARNET ( Internet Sophing Senter ) end make homework in ther, my father and my mother a theacher a Mount get $200( in indonesia Rp 2.000.000). I am hope get the laptop for my study, im sory my englis is not goot, thaks

Mariaanne, This is not the most appropriate place for support requests and the like, but this time, all you have to do is, open the /etc/apt/sources.list file (sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list) and then remove the “us” from the urls, that is, make it http://archive.ubuntu.com instead of http://us.archive.ubuntu.com. You have to do this for all the urls in that file.

Thank you for your help, will try what you said and let you know how I fare. I’m a newbie, big time and so some of the time I learn things by just falling into them and sometimes you just HAVE to ask Nice People😉

Hi, I happen to stumble over your nice blog. Since a few months I have Ubuntu installed on my personal computer and I did an upgrade to 6.06 Dapper Drake. In Linux Format (latest issue) I saw an article mentioning Ubunt 6.06 in relation to Xgl, with verrrry nice 3D graphical effects. Well, it seems like the installation succeeded, but I have no eye candy – no nice 3D effects.

Do you possibly have an idea how to configure things so that its worth the effort? On the Suse and Novell websites as well as on Ubuntu forum is some information, but I think I might just miss a starting point, from a beginners point of view.

good evening! I am Mark Aethen Agana a third year Computer Science student. I want to inquire if you can give free ubuntu installer. I want to procure the said software but it is not available here in locallity of philippines. I want to request a copy of it if it is for free! thanks! I am currently also taking CISCO class for CCNA certification and I need to software for practice intently.

In your blog of July 8th you said that you love Opera and would use it as your only browser if only they figured out a way to let you synchronize your bookmarks between different computers. I also had this problem and came across mybookmarks.com (http://www.mybookmarks.com/). Seems to be an almost perfect solution and I am happily using it to access websites using both multiple browsers (Firefox, IE and Konqueror), OSs (Ubuntu, XP and OS-X) and computers.
Hope it is useful to you too.

Thanks for all the advices here. I have just shifted to Dapper, have been a GNU/Linux advocate but never had the chance, til now. I’m into scientific applications in Ubuntu, I’ve installed Google Earth but I believe it lacks a lot of features needed in my job as analyst. Could you provide a tutorial on how to install the WW2D virtual earth system on Dapper? This would be a big help. Thanks in advance.

[…] Ubuntonista over at Ubuntu Blog posted a wonderful link to an interview with Mark Shuttleworth, the man behind Ubuntu. While the overview is cursory and superficial, sometimes you’ll take all you can get. Check it out if you’re so inclined. […]

Hello, i using Ubuntu (Edgy Eft) since several weeks.
During research for information about Linux and Ubuntu i found your site.
Many helpful information.
Setup my PC with Ubuntu and killed Windows.
Before i found Ubuntu i never think to live without this stuff from Redmond. But all works without problem.

hai, I have lauched a site at http://ubuntustore.co.in to spread ubuntu in India by selling ubuntu CDs and DVDs at a very low cheap cost. I would be very thankful if you write a post about my site in your blog. Thanks in advance.

I read your blog’s feed. I’m glad you are using Ubuntu and writing about it. I too began the switch to Ubuntu a couple of years ago and the switch to Linux as a primary desktop at home at least about four years ago. I too think Ubuntu is the easiest desktop Linux and it’s become better and better in a short period of time. From 6.06 on it’s been a viable competition to XP and with the advent of 7.04 I really don’t think you could compare the two when you consider all that comes with the distribution. I’ve been burning CDs and handing it to all my customers and friends. I’ve also been installing it when and where practical for customers and friends. The support base is better than Fedora in my opinion.

Hi Carthik
I am an entrant to Ubuntu, having been introduced to it in May 2007. I find this page interesting and would like to be returning to it often.
Can you help me in finding users who use Ubuntu for programming in Python, GTK, PyGtk available along with the Official Ubuntu book.
Here I may mention that I am a retired person seeking to keep myself engaged in learning about this operating system and writing programs in Python and PyGame.
Thanks.
Ramani.

[…] up dnsmasq, the first time took 238ms to do lookup, thereafter, 0ms – very nice and pasting what carthik says; You can run a DNS cache on your computer. This will speed up the process of looking up domain […]

I recently got interested in Linux and downloaded Kibuntu using the Wubi installation method. After finding and reading your article on setting up Kubuntu with all your favourite programs, I did the same, and am enjoying the experience.
There were 2 things that I wanted to change. I succeeded with the first one which was to have the number lock come on and the indicator light to show that it was on. Before it did not work and ticking the box in system setup for keyboard did nothing. This was finally fixed by editting the /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc parameter file. Just below the code [X-*-Greeter] the code line NumLock=On was added and now it works great! I found the solution to my number lock problem in Kubuntu at the following URL:http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p…ht=number+lock
Now the second thing I want fixed has been plaguing me for over a month now. How to turn off the touchpad which gives all sorts of problem during typing on my laptop when a stray thumb accidently touches or taps on the touchpad. I have visited several forums, made many posts, tried all the proposed solutions, but none of them work in this Kubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) version. I thought that since you are quite familiar with this version, maybe you have found a solution for turning off the touchpad. I have downloaded qsynaptics but it does not work. When I run it the GUI screen pops up with only the ‘Cancel’ button enabled and two lines of info saying “Please enable X shared memory config in FX86Config which this Kubuntu does not have, it has xorg.conf instead – and – “Please install synaptics touchpad driver!” which is of course installed and the “SHMConfig” = “on” code line has been in xorg.conf for quite a while now. Also when I enter synclient TouchPadOff=1 an error message is returned saying “Can’t access shared memory area. SHMConfig disabled?
Can you help in any way falko?
Thank you for your time,
walt

I recently got interested in Linux and downloaded Kubuntu using the Wubi installation method.
There were 2 things that I wanted to change. I succeeded with the first one which was to have the number lock come on and the indicator light to show that it was on. Before it did not work and ticking the box in system setup for keyboard did nothing. This was finally fixed by editting the /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc parameter file. Just below the code [X-*-Greeter] the code line NumLock=On was added and now it works great! I found the solution to my number lock problem in Kubuntu at the following URL:http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p…ht=number+lock
Now the second thing I want fixed has been plaguing me for over a month now. How to turn off the touchpad which gives all sorts of problem during typing on my laptop when a stray thumb accidently touches or taps on the touchpad. I have visited several forums, made many posts, tried all the proposed solutions, but none of them work in this Kubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron) version. I thought that since you are quite familiar with this version, maybe you have found a solution for turning off the touchpad. I have downloaded qsynaptics but it does not work. When I run it the GUI screen pops up with only the ‘Cancel’ button enabled and two lines of info saying “Please enable X shared memory config in FX86Config which this Kubuntu does not have, it has xorg.conf instead – and – “Please install synaptics touchpad driver!” which is of course installed and the “SHMConfig” = “on” code line has been in xorg.conf for quite a while now. Also when I enter synclient TouchPadOff=1 an error message is returned saying “Can’t access shared memory area. SHMConfig disabled?
Can anyone help in any way ?
Thank you for your time,
walt

* SOLVED * FINALLY * Re: Deactivating Touchpad in Kubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron)
from a terminal enter the following commands –
——————————————————————
Code to disable touchpad:
——————————
sudo rmmod psmouse
——————————
Code to re-enable a disabled touchpad:
———————————-
sudo modprobe psmouse
———————————-
I suppose this can be automated in a file somehow or even attached to a function key probably if someone has the knowhow.
I received this solution from the following link:http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php…9&postcount=1
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
walt
St. Thomas, Ontario = 42.77°N, 81.11°W =
RASC: Royal Astronomical Society of Canada

the new version of you ubuntu sucks and very frustrating. some commands line yum, service NetworkManager start, system-config-network does not work on the commandline and if you to go network application you interface is not even there. but on commandline it tells you ur ip and and is connected and if you install wireshark it cannot even pickup the interface and is really terrible and frustrating. note and also in the network tool it show just lo interface and if you choose the interface that shows up on commandline let eth2 and you click configure it tells you can’t detect it what a shame.

Hi Carthik,
I found one strange issue with ubuntu, do you know if its a bug or as designed?
If I have two nameservers in my resolv.conf, ubuntu only checks the first (and receives a ‘not found’ reply from there) and never goes to the next two nameservers. This behaviour is very different from windows or other linux systems.

May I just say what a comfort to discover an individual who genuinely understands what they’re discussing on the web. You definitely realize how to bring an issue to light and make it important. More people should check this out and understand this side of your story. I can’t believe you are not more popular given that you definitely have the gift.

Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to
say that I have really enjoyed surfing around your blog posts.
In any case I’ll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you write again soon!

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